WHET Darren Hayes? (Savage Garden)

He’s really sexy and still going strong, but we haven’t ever really discussed him in-depth.

Like his music? (I love his solos, especially ‘Darkness’ and ‘Step Into The Light’) Ever met him? (Is he as hot off-camera?) Anyone know how he handled being one of the earliest out Gays in pop? Heard of any Diva tendencies? What is he doing now, with his husband and his sizeable back catalogue?

by Anonymous

reply 67

11/08/2018

Doing comedy podcasts now with his partner

by Anonymous

reply 1

04/17/2018

This video still makes me cringe.

by Anonymous

reply 2

04/17/2018

He's a delight. The podcast is a side interest. At the moment he's living in California with his husband Richard, and has been writing an original musical (not a jukebox hits thing) for the last two years.

That video was meant to be a cringefest.

by Anonymous

reply 3

04/17/2018

r3 Thanks, Darren. Is that podcast any good?

by Anonymous

reply 4

04/17/2018

His cover of Dress You Up sounds better than Madonna or Darren Criss.

by Anonymous

reply 5

04/17/2018

Sorry to disappoint, R4 I'm just an acquaintance in the UK. I'm not really a podcast fan, so you'll have to ask someone else.

by Anonymous

reply 6

04/17/2018

His relationship with Daniel (Jones) was just so tragic. They were so good together.

by Anonymous

reply 7

04/17/2018

As of March 2018

by Anonymous

reply 8

04/17/2018

I love his voice. It’s very sensual and has an androgynous quality that’s appealing. He should be way way bigger than he is.

by Anonymous

reply 9

04/17/2018

So he still dyes his hair darker eh, R8...

He is a natural blond like many Aussie men, and looks like a totally different person when golden. A dark dyejob makes him look more feminine and vulnerable somehow, but also much more striking (due to contrast) which helps in performing arts.

by Anonymous

reply 10

04/19/2018

R8: Is he depressed? Why is he taking such pictures? He looks tired and unkempt. Darren can look better than this. He needs to get some rest and comb his hair, find some good clothes. It's not as if he lacks the financial means.

R9: Maybe he would be if he made more of an effort with his appearance. He's a very fine singer-songwriter.

by Anonymous

reply 11

05/13/2018

" WHET " is just stupid.

by Anonymous

reply 12

05/13/2018

His album a few years ago “Secret Codes and Battleships” is really good.

by Anonymous

reply 13

05/13/2018

I really like his SG and solo music. I’ve folleed his career for many years.

He does a movie review podcast called “We paid to see this.” He’s a huge Star Wars fan.

At one point he talked about launching a stand-up comedy career and an acting career. But I don’t know if he’s doing much more than the podcasts these days.

He has the tea on all of the Sony people who tried to destroy George Michael.... he went through the same ringer with those people,

by Anonymous

reply 14

05/13/2018

You can find a bunch of his covers of Prince songs on YouTube. My favorite is his version of “Eye Wish U Heaven”

by Anonymous

reply 15

05/13/2018

No ones cares if you don't like it, r12. It's DL tradition and here to stay.

by Anonymous

reply 16

05/13/2018

Two scandals come to mind:

He was sent up on charges in the UK for racism.

Comedian Simon Amstell publicly outed him and Darren asked him what his problem was and asked him if he wanted him to fuck him in the ass.

by Anonymous

reply 17

05/13/2018

He doesn’t seem too keen on Australia. Was the press and/or fandom tough on him down under?

by Anonymous

reply 18

05/13/2018

[quote]He was sent up on charges in the UK for racism.

He accepted a section 5 caution for Disorderly Conduct (an official telling off) after getting into a slightly-drunk shouting match with a doorman. The police couldn't find a single witness who heard a racist remark. The doorman was out to make a bit of cash.

The criticism of Australia is because (until the recent change in the law) it didn't accept the legality of his marriage. So, his husband had to travel on a visitors visa, go through different customs checks and would not be recognised as a next of kin if anything happened while they were there.

by Anonymous

reply 19

05/14/2018

Is the husband a Yank? I thought he was an Aussie.

I love Kath and Kim but they made a pretty nasty homophobic joke about him. The show makes fun of everyone but still.

by Anonymous

reply 20

05/14/2018

Richard is English.

by Anonymous

reply 21

05/14/2018

He wasn’t exactly “out”.

He was married to a woman and closeted at the time Savage Garden came to prominence.

by Anonymous

reply 22

05/14/2018

It’s very difficult to believe that anyone bought him as straight-married back in the 90s, yet they did.

I suppose he got away with it because a fashion for men in pop then was a femme flamboyance in dress.

by Anonymous

reply 23

05/15/2018

The cherry cola song was catchy but that treacly, twee "Stand with you on a mountain" song makes me cringe.

Are these duds still performing?

How embarrassing.

by Anonymous

reply 24

05/15/2018

R11 He is depressed because his career has stopped and he'll be 50 soon.

He has some residual guilt about betraying his wife, and also his singing partner.

by Anonymous

reply 25

05/15/2018

I thought he split with his wife very amicably. He says they’re still friends and always were, and they parted ways early in both their lives so it isn’t as if he wasted decades of her youth & fertility.

Daniel seems happy in his own career and marriage now, too. If Darren is depressed about anything it’s probably just the usual boring angst everyone has about growing older (which is harder in Arts & Ents).

Maybe he needs something new to talk about in his music, which in turn would beget a new gimmick. That is, if he still wants to be a performer anymore, anyway.

by Anonymous

reply 26

05/15/2018

What was the deal with Daniel and Darren? I heard they lived together in LA (in a one room hotel room) while waiting for their record deal to come through. I can believe Darren was madly (truly and deeply) in love with the straight Daniel and it caused Darren heartache. A lot of their songs come through with that kind of angst. Absolutely tragic they don't communicate as they are both in the States now.

by Anonymous

reply 27

05/15/2018

I only heard grapevine rumors that they had a sexual relationship sometime in ‘97-98 that turned sour, because Daniel only thought of it as “road head” and friendly DL experimentation while Darren fell in love. It is a tragic story, and one many of us can relate to sadly.

by Anonymous

reply 28

05/17/2018

Darren could have done better than Daniel lookswise, so lord knows why he was pining.

by Anonymous

reply 29

05/23/2018

Bump for the Garden.

Anyone ever see them live? I always wanted to, but never got the chance before they disbanded.

by Anonymous

reply 30

05/24/2018

D x D definitely emanated bf-vibes in some of the early promo pics...

by Anonymous

reply 31

10/02/2018

Baiting, dating, or just platonic twin-flaming?

by Anonymous

reply 32

10/02/2018

Suggestive EP covers probably didn't help matters...

by Anonymous

reply 33

10/02/2018

the Spotify ID picture they chose for Savage Garden is SO SAD. just Darren and Dan smiling at each other :(

by Anonymous

reply 34

10/02/2018

That ultra cheesy song by him, "so beautiful " is one of my guilty pleasures.

by Anonymous

reply 35

10/02/2018

His solo stuff is crap. The other sexy guy in Savage Garden was responsible for their success.

by Anonymous

reply 36

10/02/2018

I want to see his peen.

by Anonymous

reply 37

10/02/2018

Anyone know when his depression started?

The way he talks about it implies that a correlation with Daniel breaking up with him...

by Anonymous

reply 38

10/04/2018

Isn’t his partner older and unattractive ?

by Anonymous

reply 39

10/04/2018

Sensual

by Anonymous

reply 40

10/04/2018

R36 The duo stuff is mere pop

by Anonymous

reply 41

10/04/2018

Some of his solo material sounds like it belongs in a musical or on someone else's album. It's good but the narrative voice is not "him", sometimes.

Wonder if he writes for other people?

by Anonymous

reply 42

10/04/2018

R42 His solo not too poppy. A good thing.

by Anonymous

reply 43

10/04/2018

Love it! Fabulously cute and untalented!

by Anonymous

reply 44

10/04/2018

Given the homophobic shove he got from much of the English-speaking media after coming out (go to certain archives like ONTD! and look for the decade-old articles in his tag, you’ll see what) I’m surprised he ever attempted a comeback at all, let alone a relatively successful and positive one. Good for him; I probably would have said “stuff it” and gone into house development with my piece a la Jeremy Renner.

I still rmemember how he almost got viciously outed on British fluff telly show POPWORLD, by Channel 4 presenter & comedian Simon Amstell (best known for the quiz show NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS) who was Out himself already. The actual explicit admission and the confrontation they had about it was filmed but never made it to air, but can tell something went down by the sexuality digs littered throughout and by the end of interview where there’s a weird conspicuous edit and tense grimacing. Awkward.

by Anonymous

reply 45

10/05/2018

Ew. Gross.

by Anonymous

reply 46

10/05/2018

I wanna hear this musical he’s working on. Are musicals even a thing Down Under?

by Anonymous

reply 47

10/12/2018

[Quote] Are musicals even a thing Down Under?

Is that a serious question?

by Anonymous

reply 48

10/12/2018

Apparently he’s a top, which I can’t get my head around because he’s so tiny.

by Anonymous

reply 49

10/15/2018

He's difficult to dislike because he's so grateful for his success, though it helps that he's cute like a Bush-baby.

[quote] DARREN: "Incredible that people were paying me to get on an aeroplane and come & sing...*whispers* I would have done it for free!

by Anonymous

reply 50

10/19/2018

Dirrin! Miss this bloke.

by Anonymous

reply 51

10/21/2018

He’s covered Madge. Is he a fan?

by Anonymous

reply 52

10/27/2018

He gives good blowjobs.

by Anonymous

reply 53

10/27/2018

SOMEONE is sitting on a toasty THOT story, eh R53?

by Anonymous

reply 54

10/27/2018

R52 so in that clip he hadn't sung in five years before getting up there to sing? In that case it was an impressive performance.

by Anonymous

reply 55

10/28/2018

How much is he worth after taxes? Curious as to what his lifestyle is like now....

by Anonymous

reply 56

10/31/2018

Love him. He was on Bill Maher's old Politically Incorrect show and was intelligent and witty.

The relationship with Daniel Jones does seem like a classic break up. Jones was the musical genius and for their 2nd album Affirmation - they never worked in the studio together. Hayes had moved to San Francisco and was partying up with the likes of Brian Boitano. Jones married his gf and Hayes seemed to go off the deep end.

An old VHI House of Blues concert for SV, Darren sang almost the entire concert to Daniel Jones, flirting outrageously with him. Jones seemed to take it well but it was kind of odd.

by Anonymous

reply 57

10/31/2018

When he had the dark hair, in the early Savage Garden days, he always struck me as a poor man's Brian Molko. I hated all of Savage Garden's songs, but like his solo work. Daniel Jones has always seemed like a closeted, pompous, aloof stick in the mud.

by Anonymous

reply 58

10/31/2018

[quote] When he had the dark hair, in the early Savage Garden days, he always struck me as a poor man's Brian Molko.

I miss that andro-goth/glam/cyber look of the 00s.

by Anonymous

reply 59

10/31/2018

[quote] An old VHI House of Blues concert for SV, Darren sang almost the entire concert to Daniel Jones, flirting outrageously with him.

Does anyone have links to video of this? I've looked several times and several dozen pages deep but nothing turns up.

by Anonymous

reply 60

10/31/2018

R60 does VH1 have a site? They might have it their archives. It originally aired in 1998.

by Anonymous

reply 61

11/01/2018

R59 Molko was SO PRETTY. Definitely a comphet crush of mine.

by Anonymous

reply 62

11/01/2018

I miss those days too R59.

He was beautiful in his prime R62. An androgynous angel.

by Anonymous

reply 63

11/01/2018

I think the Darren/Daniel rift must partly be about some jealous sexual thing, because in this day & age when the only money to be made in the music industry is via touring (and especially reunion tours) there is no way either of them leave comeback money on the table. There’s stubborn and then there’s stupid.

Unless they’re dragging out the possibility and holding out for even more moolah, but in five years no one will care or know who they are so it’s a fine line to walk. Their outright utter disgust with the idea rings true, though, and that makes me think that there is a fucked-up personal & emotional reason they can’t stand on a stage together or even bear to talk at length about the other in an interview.

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